Test
by maxPod
Summary: Max was captured by the School; the flock rescues her, but not before Jeb managed to put his next test into action. Now the flock had an amnesic human Max who hasn't the slightest idea who the heck they were. Can her true self triumph over this dilemma?
1. Chapter 1

_If anyone has written this idea already and wishes for me to stop, then do tell me so that I may discontinue this. However, I ask that you wait a bit longer to see if my idea really is different. I really hope we can compromise, 'cause I'm actually very excited of this story._

_I do not own Maximum Ride, the character or the books._

* * *

Fang rushed down the hall, Nudge and Angel kicking mercilessly at his heels. Iggy and Gazzy followed behind, planting bombs here or there that should blow this School to smithereens after they were done with it.

Knocking out another whitecoat, Fang bounded down steps, crashed through exits, and eventually halted at a plain, white door. A plain white door that held their leader captive. Not even locks could hold back the Flock as they tore down the door, raptor eyes sweeping the dark room, landing on a single crate holding a trembling figure.

Fang flung himself at the cage, but Angel beat him to it. Her little fingers flew over the latch and nearly tore the crate apart in her rush to open it.

"Max!" she exclaimed, swinging the door wide open, waiting for her beloved 'mom' to clump her with a hug.

Max's next words scared every bird-kid to the core. "Who are you?" she asked.

Though her voice was tough and held an attitude only Maximum Ride could acquire, the rest of the Flock began to doubt this Max's identity. Could this be a clone? Maybe Max II? But if this was a fraud, then shouldn't she be attempting to deceive them?

Angel rummaged through this Max's mind and found…nothing. With her now enhanced mind reading abilities, Angel had expected to find memories of the flock, of Jeb, of something. But she found nothing but pain. Excruciating pain. Angel retreated to her own mind hastily after the first second of Max's only memory.

"No… What's going on?" Angel gasped. Then, to her horror, tears began forming in her blue eyes. "Max… What happened to you?"

"What? What is it?" Iggy asked urgently.

"I don't—"

Angel got no farther, for at that moment, a voice rang out through the speakers, calling for Erasers and Flyboys to hunt down any avian-hybrid in the area.

"Angel, we don't have time for explanations. Just tell me one thing." Fang looked at Angel and questioned, with deadly seriousness, "Is this the real Max?"

Angel, aware that everything from now 'till the end of time depended on her answer, said with firmness few six-year-olds could have, "Yes, this is Max."

Fang waited for any doubt to waver through her eyes. He had to be sure. If they screwed up now, if they left with the false Max and the real one was left behind, everything would've been for nothing. All their planning in the past few days had been for Max's sake, and if they had wasted all their effort on the wrong Max…

Life isn't worth living if _their_ Max was gone.

"Fang," Angel looked at her temporary leader with conviction, "something is wrong with this Max, but I know that she is still _our_ Max."

Nodding, Fang turned to Max and held out his hand. She cringed back slightly before narrowing her eyes defiantly.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

Sighing, Fang grabbed her by her wrist and dragged the struggling Max out of her crate. Weak and malnourished, Max couldn't hold up her resistance for long.

Five bird-kids flew out the nearest window, their momentarily out-of-action leader in the arms of their second-in-command. They sped away as the first explosion was heard, leaving behind them the detonating School and a few pursuing Flyboys. The robots did not chase them for long and suddenly turned tail and flew back to the smoking School.

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Max was beginning to feel heavier in his arms. Fang searched rather desperately for a cave of some sort.

Almost as though he had acquired Angel's ability to read minds, Iggy exclaimed exactly what Fang needed to here, "A cave at two O'clock!"

Sure enough, a dark opening zoomed into view as they neared it. How the heck Iggy managed to figure that out when his five companions who can actually see didn't was beyond Fang. Probably echolocation or something along those lines. Iggy's hearing was beginning to evolve even more so that he may make-do with the disability of his eyes.

Shuffling into the cave, the flock immediately set to work like their tradition demands. Pretty soon, they had a fire going and food they had stolen from the School. But as hungry as they were, they only ate because they knew their bodies needed it; none of them actually enjoyed the aroma and flavor of their meal. In fact, everything tasted quite bland.

Why were they so pessimistic? Well, they were mutants on the run. They had monsters after them. And, oh, yeah, their leader was totally out of it and in an unstable condition. Jeezums, who wouldn't be gloomy?

Fang had covered Max with way too many blankets for comfort; even in this fairly dark situation, the flock couldn't hold back a smirk each time Fang glanced at Max's figure.

Max stirred several times during the flock's night, and they can all trust Fang to pop up before them every time. Either he was having an uncharacteristic nervous breakdown or his hormones were raging like hell. Whatever the reason may be, Fang was far too jumpy for his own good.

It seemed that besides the snoozing Max, not one other mutant can sleep. They gathered around Max, watching and listening to her.

When Max's face grimaced with pain—probably from a nightmare—Nudge reached out tenderly and ran a comforting hand along her back. Then the 11-year-old cringed back, her eyes wide.

"Nudge?" asked Gazzy.

Not answering, Nudge scrambled onto her knees, leaning over Max hesitantly. She grabbed the hem of Max's shirt and pulled it back.

Other gasps echoed around the cave.

"What?" asked Iggy. "What is it?"

Nudge smooth her hands down Max's bare back. "Where are her wings?"

* * *

_Okay, so not really that good. But I'm sure that with practice, I'll come around. No flames, please._

_I know how this story will end. I know why Max doesn't remember anything, and I know why she doesn't have wings. I…just don't know how to word it out at the moment. Oh well, I'll figure something out. So, if you're interested, please have patience._


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own Maximum Ride._

* * *

Okay, stay calm. Just stay in control. Try to figure this out… Fang was repeatedly telling himself that even as Nudge screamed her mouth dry.

"Max! No! Why?! What happened!?" Nudge began shoving Max left and right until the teenager jerked awake, glancing around for enemies doomed for her verbal or physical abuse.

"Thanks for the wake up call, but next time, try not to throw me around the whole freakin' world." Max snarls at Nudge, who is shocked into silence.

Max had just _snarled_ at her. Nudge, despite years of enduring hardship, whimpered. Max never growled at her like that before. Never.

Swallowing the knob in his throat, Gazzy asked, "Max? Are you okay?"

"I'm just going to assume that by 'Max' you mean me, no?" Max waits for an answer, her tone still cold and sarcastic.

"Yes…you're Max," replies Gazzy in a whisper.

Before Max can scare the kids any more, Fang said, "Max, you should tell us what happened to you. Don't you remember us?"

"I don't know you. That also deciphers into 'I don't trust you'. So there's no way I'll tell you what happened to me." Max picked herself off the ground, dusting off invisible dirt as she made her way towards the mouth of the cave.

"Max, where are you going?" asked Gazzy anxiously as Max shoved her way through them.

"That's none of your business."

"Wait!" yelled Angel, eyes widening with horror even as her warning left her mouth. Too late…

Max took one last step forward, but her foot met air where she had expected ground. With a yelp, Max unbalanced and went overboard, heading south fast.

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I had planned to leave peacefully without any roughhousing or casualties. But things never go as planned, do they?

The first thing I noticed as I walked—stumbled—towards the exit of this cave was how blue and sky-like everything was. That was strange thing number one. I was expecting a forest maybe or even some sort of swamp. I mean, we are in a cave, and caves are usually on the ground. But noooo. As my infamous luck would have it, this cave was carved into the middle of a cliff. I marched right into thin air.

Now that had predictable results. What d'you expect? Of course I dropped like a ton of bricks. Gravity would have it no other way. Now here's something that wasn't so expected. No, I did not hit the ground with a gruesome squish noise. Nor did I land on some ill-fated hiker out for a trek.

Some kid appeared beside me. So, apparently, one teenager plunging to their death wasn't enough, a second one just had to hurl themselves after me. But even as I thought this, black wings unfurled themselves from the kid's back as arms grabbed me around the waist. The very air around me seemed to vibrate as those rather majestic wings beat down with power, forcing our descending into an ascending.

Well, I was freaked out. I tried to pry myself from this guy, but he—I recognized him as the dark, wordless one—only tightened his grip. Before I knew it, we were back in the cave again, relieved cries filling the place.

"Max!"

I stiffened as the dark-skinned girl bundled me with her arms.

"You shouldn't do that until your wings come back!" she chided.

Hold up. Wings? Yeah, I know the silent person behind me had wings, but me? Um, no.

Seeing my no doubt skeptical expression, the girl continued, "Oh, yeah! You don't remember. Well, you used to be one of us. And you still are. There's just some sort of a glitch in your DNA or something. That's what Iggy told me. He said that the whitecoats probably used you for another of their stupid experiments and that somehow messed up your genetic makeup. Although I'm not so sure about your memory thing. I mean, can you erase someone's memory? I guess that's—urmph."

I clogged up this girl's mouth before she succeeded in deafing me. "You talk a lot, don't you?" I asked.

This girl nodded eagerly as if she was hoping something in my memory had spiked up. Well, too bad. I wasn't done with her little attempt at talking me out of action yet. "Then your bunker of vocabulary should know the word _quiet_!"

The girl's face went from a smile to a sob in that one second. Wow. I had this kind of effect on people.

"You've got problems, you know that?" growled a voice to my left. I whirled to that direction and saw…no one.

"Down here!" the same voice snarled, annoyance etched into its tone.

I looked down. The sight that met me was weird. A dog was staring back at me in anger, and then it barked, "What are you looking so surprised for!?"

Well that was something. This dog can talk.

I had only one answer to this situation, and you can't blame me for it. You'd do the same. I said, "You guys are…freaks."

Again, wow. The way they flinched at that remark, it was almost as if they couldn't believe I had this kind of reaction to them. Well, why shouldn't I? They were a pack of kids with a talking dog and a teen with wings!

"Actually," a tiny, scared, and hesitant voice piped up, "We _all_ have wings."

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Jeb looked up from the document he was previously studying as a fellow whitecoat walked into his office. Taking a seat, the whitecoat smiled at his boss.

That was more than enough of a message for Jeb. That smile translated to everything Jeb needed to know. The plan was a success. Maximum Ride was back with her family, without wings and without memories. As morbid as it may be, all this torture Jeb was inflicting upon the bird-kids were once again just another test for Max to overcome. Jeb had a suspicion that Itex might make a comeback, so Max had to be ready. She was already physically able to take on the company again, but her emotional side still needed caution.

The purpose for this new test was to prepare Max emotionally. Jeb and his colleagues had successfully screened all of Max's prior memories with new ones. The fresh memories were not really memories at all; they were just instincts. Everything she had learned intuitively in her earlier life had been replaced with the common sense of an average human being's. Whatever your everyday human may feel, do, or think, will be everything Max feels, does, and thinks.

So now Max's heart will be tested to its limits. Even with her new, fairly pathetic human feelings, she _has_ to find it within herself to accept and love her flock again. To pass the test, she has to regain her old, confident, and headstrong self back; she had to give her loyalty and devotion to her flock all over again. That way, whatever may happen in the future, Max's faithfulness and trustworthiness would be unshakable.

The wingless bit was just an add-on. It was just something to test Max's abilities not just as an Avian-American with wings and exaggerated senses, but as an average person. It was to see if Max truly can triumph over all her obstacles, even if she lacks her original capabilities.

But would her DNA forever be dominated by a human's? Would it ever escape its confinement and conquer its original role in Max's genetic material? Not even Jeb knew. It's all up to Max. She'll have to fight to regain what she's lost.

* * *

_The last bit with Jeb was for explanation. I might have rushed it since it's only the second chapter, but that's what I always do, so…_


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own Maximum Ride._

* * *

I blinked myself awake, taking in the random features of the cave at the light streaming in through the cave's opening. Well, as far as I knew, I wasn't chained, bound, intoxicated, or shackled. Instincts told me that I should be grateful of that. Things were looking up already.

Better yet, there was no screaming girl in my face. Speaking of which, where is that little motormouth? Where are all of those friends of hers? According to that little girl called Angel, all of them were my family. Right…

As if on cue, voices made their way to my ears. I knew who was talking, and what I was hearing was seriously pissing me off.

--

As soon as morning had hit, Fang had gathered the flock for a meeting, excluding the sleeping Max, of course. Even though none of them admitted it out loud, it was seriously weird to gather in a conference without Max leading them.

Fang began in his usually blunt manner, "She's absolutely normal? Are you sure?"

Angel replied, "Yes, I checked her again last night."

"So she will never have wings again?" asked a worried Nudge.

"I don't know. Maybe. I mean, this is what the whitecoats did, right? So couldn't we just reverse the process or something? We can ask Jeb." Gazzy suggested.

The thoughtful hush that followed was broken by Iggy, who seemed to be afraid of voicing his opinion. He himself wasn't sure whether he truly meant it or not. "This is just a thought, okay? Don't take me seriously. But… Well… Why are you guys so intent on changing Max back?"

"What do you mean?" wondered Angel.

"I mean, this is like the chance of a lifetime, isn't it? We've always wanted to be normal so that we can live regular lives, so what's happening to Max is a good thing, isn't it? She'll be happy if we drop her off at Dr. Martinez's house and leave her."

Another silence.

"What are you saying?!" exclaimed Nudge finally. "We can't separate! We just can't! Max even said so herself before! That we've gotta stick together! We're six! Not five. _Six_!"

"_Seven_! Don't you dare forget me!" Total corrected with a roar.

"I told you not to take me seriously!" defended Iggy hurriedly. "I was just thinking about it, that's all! It's just that…_I_ didn't get to live with my parents because I had wings. Max…she has a chance."

"Dr. Martinez already knows about Max, and she's fine with it. She won't sell her out to the press." Fang's tone was unintentionally harsh.

Iggy flinched.

"Look," Fang tried again, casting a futile apologetic glance in Iggy's direction, "Max wouldn't want to leave the flock."

"So what should we do?" questioned Nudge exasperatedly. This conversation was going no where.

Fang answered, "Well, I think we should—"

A rock whistled through the air and walloped Fang in the head. A sleepy but acerbic voice rang out. "Put a sock in it, ladies! If you have to gossip, do it elsewhere!"

They turned to Max, who was sitting up and glaring already.

Even though this was their third day with the unfriendly Max, they were still unused to her hostility towards them. Now they understood and even sympathized with those who had to expect and deal with this kind of abuse whenever they came across Max.

Max was retreating to her corner of the cave again, deliberately looking away from them.

--

I was trapped here. Since I couldn't fly, I couldn't get out of this cave without turning 2D in the long shot. Whether that was according to these guys' plan or not, I didn't care. I was dependent on them for food, water, and shelter. Apparently, it was too dangerous for me to go out alone in enemy territory, so I had to be accompanied by Nudge or Angel whenever I go to take care of my business. Things were looking down for me.

"I gotta pee," I announced shamelessly. It's a usual occurrence now…

Fang nodded to Nudge, who immediately stood up with him. I grudgingly wrapped my arms around Fang's neck as he carried me down, Nudge following. At touchdown, Fang stood back as Nudge led me several meters away into the trees for privacy. She turned away from me as I commenced to nature. These guys were at least half decent. Besides the keeping me prisoner part.

Once back in the cave, everything was same old same old. Everyone, even that dog, huddled up near the campfire like they were discussing a plan. Fang kept glancing back at the cave mouth as though anticipating an attack.

Was it just me, or were these guys a little paranoid?

I revised that naïve opinion of mine a few moments after Angel yelled, "They're here!"

On cue, everyone but Fang flew out the cave; explosions and shouts reached me from outside. Fang had placed himself almost protectively in front of me, and that's what made me curious enough to stand on tiptoe to look over his shoulder. What I saw made me doubt my eyes and sanity. These…robot thingies were attacking the flock, trying to get pass them and into the cave. Several made it in, but Fang forced them back.

"What the heck is going on?" I demanded. Somehow, I was still using my library-appropriate voice level. I didn't scream my head off since, for some odd reason, I wasn't as scared as I thought a normal human should be. I was just a little stunned.

And as I watched Nudge get punched in the guts, I realized I was even a bit angry. I wanted to grab that robot thingamajig and bash it against the cliff side. Why was I so protective? I barely even knew these guys.

Without warning, five of those gizmos dashed in, three of them attacking Fang and shoving him across the cave. The other two turned toward me. Well, it was obvious that the rest of what I was officially calling "the good guys" were a little preoccupied to help me, so one would usually think that I was hopeless. Fang was struggling hard, but two more robots charged in to hold him back.

As my attackers advanced on me, I couldn't help but say, "I knew those flying freaks were weird, but you guys are _ugly_, too."

At the edge of my vision, I saw a fist zooming in fast at the left side of my head. I was not in a mood to be whacked at. All the pent-up irritation of being cooped up in this cave finally got to me. I grabbed that fist and twisted it around; an unexpected popping noise signaled a possible dislocated shoulder connected to that fist.

Gaining confidence and adrenaline, I tightened my hold and threw the robot with all my might, bashing him against his buddy. I looked around and my eyes fell on the still crackling campfire. I grabbed the cool end of a burning stick and threw it at the two entangled machines. The satisfaction I felt as they burned up was indescribable. You should definitely try it sometime.

Without stopping, I rushed to help Fang. He was holding well against five of these creeps, but just seeing someone even _trying_ to harm him pumped more anger into my veins. Why was that? I barely had time to register my own question. I just wanted to beat the crap out of these weirdoes.

I managed to drag one off of him, but by then, the cave—which already had limited space to move in—was now nearly overcrowded with teeming enemies and friends. Iggy had somehow forced his way in and was throwing punches at a couple of poor thingamabobs—I really have to find out what these things were called. As more robots crammed in, Nudge and Angel squeezed in too, heaving the whachamacallits out the cave.

I scrambled even deeper into the horde of robots, shouting, "Hey, C3PO! Over here!"

The idiot robots actually reacted to the little nickname I gave them; every pair of glowing eyes zeroed in on me. A moment ago, I was merely acting on impulse when I had unknowingly made myself bait, but I wasn't seriously expecting them to actually come after me. I mean, what on earth did I do to make them wanna kill me?!

But it seemed that luck decided to have mercy on me today, for it took my side. While the Flyboys—hey! I knew what they were called now!—were momentarily distracted on getting me, the flock made their move. Man, they were fast!

Fang dropped a bunch of them before I could even blink. Nudge and Gazzy teamed up to shepherd loads of Flyboys out the cave while Angel encouraged the dumb-as-sheep creeps. Iggy was already outside, dropping explosives in every direction.

So…what am I suppose to do? Should I help or should I just wait? But before I could even choose, it was over. We were Flyboy-free. For now.

--

"You were awesome back there, Max!" squealed Nudge as they swept out the remaining debris from the Flyboys' attack. We all had minor bruises and cuts, but at the moment, we were just happy to be alive.

"Thanks," I muttered. I wasn't actually sure how to respond. After all, I was merely acting spontaneously. I didn't know I was even capable of fighting until after I had set two Flyboys aflame. How did I even know that they'll catch on fire so easily?

I brushed that question aside as Angel grinned up at me.

"Your memories are returning!" she exclaimed happily, twirling around with Total in her arms.

"What?! Really?!" Nudge jumped up like crazy. "That's great!"

"The memories are not recovering fast, but it still is. Slowly but surely," explained Angel with no less enthusiasm than before.

Fang's lips twitched, pulling up into a grin for the tiniest fraction of a second.

For some insane, unexplainable reason, my heart leapt at the sight of that smile.

"Max! Max!" Gazzy called for my attention. "Do you remember me?" he asked hopefully.

I found myself trying hard to recall anything that might have to do with this little kid. "Nope. Nothing."

"We need to get away from here," announced Fang suddenly. "We can't risk another attack."

"But Max still doesn't have her wings yet. You can't carry her all the way to Dr. Martinez's house," insisted Nudge earnestly.

"Who's this Dr. Martinez?" It's a weird name.

"She's your mom!" Iggy stared at me skeptically. "You couldn't have really forgotten her too, have you?"

I completely ignored his tone and asked, "Why do we need to go to her?"

"Because she'll know where Jeb is! Duh!" Gazzy rolled his eyes.

Then the strangest thing happened. Don't call me mentally deranged after this, okay? But believe it or not, I heard a voice in my head just then. I know, crazy, right? But it's true.

_Hello, Maximum. How have you been?_

_What the heck? _I froze. I swore for a sec, I almost thought I was talking to myself. I probably was. I mean, how can there be another consciousness in me besides my own?

_Oh, Max. You really should hurry._

I didn't answer that time. What was this? Some sort of scam to embarrass me? Maybe that Angel girl was playing mind tricks as a joke.

"Angel, I don't like having my chain yanked," I told her with a frown.

"Huh? What did I do?" the little girl asked frightfully.

"You just spoke to me in a really weird voice." I replied, confused and pissed that she was still trying to keep up her act. I thought she was better than that.

_You have reattached to your flock faster than my expectations determined, but you still haven't bonded enough to trust them with your very life._

"There!" I exclaimed, pointing at Angel. "You just did it again! You just spoke to me in my head!"

The flock stared at me.

"You did! Don't lie! I just heard a voice in my head. It was, like, trying to hold a conversation or something! It was you, wasn't it?! It has to be! Who else can communicate through thoughts?"

During my tirade defending my sanity, I realized that understanding seemed to dawn on everyone but me. Come on. Why was I always the last one to know what's going on?


End file.
